This is a critical oversight and I hope it is merely
because of the brevity of the mailing. Between Airport Road and Sombrilla
Court, NM502 is presently one lane in each direction.
Furthermore, it does not have shoulders and there are large central medians
between the opposing lanes in many locations. This results in 35-40 mph motor
traffic "squeezing" into cycling traffic at each of these medians,
especially westbound, where the cyclist is laboring upgradient. That is not the
least bit comforting to a westbound cyclist riding uphill and probably not for
motorists either.**

Given the County has heavily developed the Airport Basin
and can therefore expect more cyclists to be using this road for
transportation, the section of NM502 in the proposed scope of work should be
improved with safe cycling accommodations such as bike lanes or paved
shoulders. The shoulders east of Airport road are excellent for the most part.
I think regardless of the scope of this project, paved shoulders or some sort
of safe cycling accomodation should be added to NM502 starting west of Airport
Road.

I should mention, in case anyone else is thinking of it,
that in my opinion as a skilled cyclist who wrote quite a bit of the Los AlamosCounty Bicycling Transportation System (2005) document, that the Canyon Rim
Trail is not a safe substitute for roadway cycling. Whoever designed it unfortunately put aesthetics far
ahead of safety. It is a beautiful trail, but was purposely built to be
quite sinuous and often has very poor lines of sight. A quite responsible
cyclist travelling at a reasonable cycling speed can come immediately upon a
walker or walkers on one of the numerous blind curves on that trail. I've done that at a slow cycling speed and the reaction
of walkers is often one of surprise and alarm. Trinity Drive from Diamond to
Airport Road is one of the county's Priority 1 arterials for the purpose of
cycling access.

If the information on how cycling will be accommodated is
already posted somewhere, could you please send me a link? I'll post it on the
LA Bikes blog.

** Note added later: The County Corridor study leaves bicycle facilities up in the air. The County Council voted thus: " ...This (design) option is to be modified to incorporate bicycle lanes or bicycle
paths where it is physically viable and cost-effectively feasible to so
do in the opinion of the NM Department of Transportation and Los Alamos
County. The motion passed 6 – 1; Councilor Chiravalle opposed..."